Worth the Wait (Picking up the Pieces #4) (18 page)

It was easy for Kenzie to put on a brave front around me when there was a way for her to keep me at a distance, but having lived in my house for the past week, there were certain things she couldn’t hide. Things that made me want to find the fuckers who had hurt her in the past and pound the ever loving shit out of them. What was worse, I was beginning to see things in the twins’ actions that made me downright murderous.

The evening after they moved in, Callie was drinking a glass of juice and accidentally spilled some of it on the floor. She immediately dropped her head and closed herself off. I couldn’t get her to talk to me for the rest of the night, no matter how hard I tried.

When I’d get home from work, dinner would already be done, the table set, drinks poured. It was a full on
Leave it to Beaver
family spread. After the third night, I’d informed Kenzie that she didn’t have to make me dinner every single night, but she was insistent. When I told her the least I could do was clean the kitchen after she cooked, she simply shrugged and told me she was just doing her part. If it wasn’t the cooking, it was the laundry, or the cleaning, or the yard work. If she could find something that needed to be done around the house, she was determined to do it.

But the moment that finally did me in was when Cam was playing in the living room and accidentally knocked a picture frame off one of the shelves, breaking the glass. I rushed over to make sure he hadn’t cut himself, but he’d cowered away from my touch before finally taking off into the bedroom he and Callie were sharing. Enough was enough. I’d had it with the fucking walking-on-eggshells routine.

Storming into the kitchen, I’d found Kenzie exactly where I knew she’d be, perched in front of the stove, watching over dinner like a hawk. It was as if she was terrified to let anything burn. Flipping off the burners, I ignored her protests and grabbed her by the wrist, dragging her through the back door and into the yard.

“What the hell, Brett! I’m in the middle of making dinner. It’s going to burn if I don’t get back in there.”

“Then let it burn, Kenzie! That’s what happens sometimes. Dinners burn. Drinks spill, glass breaks,
accidents happen
. It’s not the end of the world.” I saw those shutters of hers start to slide into place, and I knew I couldn’t let that happen.

“Beauty, you and those kids don’t have to be perfect, not here. You don’t need to do all of this. You don’t have to work all day, then come home just to start all over again. I moved y’all in here because I wanted you safe, not because I wanted a maid service.”

Her head dipped down in an attempt to hide the tears that were forming in her jade eyes. Jesus Christ, the woman was killing me.

Taking her chin between my fingers, I forced her to meet my gaze, trying to make her see how sincere I was. “I can’t stand that you, Cameron and Callie feel the need to walk on eggshells when I’m around. I want y’all to be comfortable. Twice this week one of the kids has done something by accident, and the result has been them running off to their room and hiding from me. That guts me, Kenz. I
hate
it when they won’t talk to me.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, those tears breaking free and making tracks down her cheeks.

Seeing her pain was tearing me apart. “Don’t apologize, beauty.
Talk
to me. Please. You can trust me, baby. I can help you if you’d just let me,” I pleaded, needing her trust more than anything.

“I do trust you.”

I couldn’t explain why, but those four words made me feel invincible. Reaching up, I brushed her tears away with my thumb. “Then trust me to be able to help you. Talk to me, Kenz.”

We stood in silence for a minute before she finally spoke. “Okay.” Her voice was so soft I barely heard it. “After the kids go to bed. I don’t want to talk about this when they can hear.”

I nodded. I could give her that.

Knowing what I had to do and being prepared to do it were two different things entirely.

I’d left Brett standing outside and gone back into the kitchen to finish dinner. The conversation around the table was stilted, and no matter how hard Brett tried, he just couldn’t get the kids to interact. I had every intention of talking to them, letting them know that Brett wasn’t upset about the broken picture frame, but I wanted to do it with just the three of us. Apparently, Brett had other ideas.

He stood from the table without a word and headed into the kitchen. The sound of cabinet doors opening and closing echoed into the dining area until he came walking back in with a small stack of plates and glasses. Sitting the dishes on the table between Cameron and Callie, he picked up one of the glasses, took a few steps back, and dropped it right on the floor, sending shards of glass flying everywhere.

The three of us sat in shocked silence as he picked up a small salad plate and did the same thing, breaking it into a million pieces before turning his full attention to my kids.

“Things break. Accidents happen. I’m not going to get mad at y’all for breaking something as minor as a picture frame. I can replace a picture frame. I can buy new dishes.” He crouched down so he was eye level with them. “I don’t need those things. What I
need
is for y’all to be happy here, to be comfortable with living in this house and with me. You two are more important to me than a stupid picture frame. Understand?”

Callie and Cameron nodded silently, their jaws hanging open as they stared at Brett with curious little faces.

“Good, now…” He stood up handed each of them a plate. “Your turn.”

They sat there frozen for several seconds. Finally, Callie dropped her plate on the floor, letting out a peel of innocent laughter. Cameron quickly followed suit. The three of them dropped dish after dish, until only one glass was left.

“Mommy, your turn,” Callie told me, sliding the glass my way with a wide smile. Her enthusiasm was contagious. Unable to deny her when she was just so damn happy, I picked up the glass and tossed it down where all the shards of broken dishes lay, letting out my own laugh as the glass broke.

It might not have seemed like much to Brett, but what he’d just done for my children was
everything
. A few broken dishes had given them a confidence I’d never seen in them before. He’d done that. And in doing so, Brett had given me a gift that meant more than anything money could ever buy. He’d given me and my children safety and security. I’d never be able to repay him for that.

After we finished our little Greek wedding celebration, I took the kids to give them their baths and get them ready for bed while Brett swept up the mess we’d made.

“Mommy, Brett’s the coolest guy ever!” Cameron said, his voice chock full of excitement as he styled his hair into a shampoo mohawk.

“Yeah! Can we stay here forever?”

I dipped a cup into the water and dumped it over Cam’s head to rinse the soap out.

“I don’t know, babies. But we’re here now, so let’s just enjoy it.”

After finishing their baths, I got them in their jammies, read
Goodnight Moon
, and was getting ready to tuck them in.

“Mommy,” Cameron asked as I leaned in to kiss his forehead. “Can Brett make me a burrito tonight?”

My chest warmed as a smile tipped the corner of my lips. “Sure, bubs.”

He’d looked at me with such adorable confusion when I told him what the twins requested, but after explaining how to wrap them in tightly like a burrito, Brett went into their room and proceeded to tuck the covers around their tiny bodies.

“Night night kiss,” Callie told him when he stood to walk away.

Brett stood there for a moment, seeming surprised by her request before leaning down and placing a sweet kiss on her forehead. He walked over to Cameron and did the same.

“Love you, Brett,” Callie whispered as her eyes grew heavy.

“Yeah, Brett. Love you.”

He paused briefly, and what I saw on his face made my heart beat frantically in my chest. He looked down at my angels, his face full of more pride and love than I ever thought possible. “I love y’all, too,” he said, his voice gravelly with emotion. That was the last hit the walls around my heart could take. They were done, crumbled down to dust.

The problem with that realization was that I now had to tell Brett about my past. Every sordid, ugly little detail. And I could only hope he’d still look at me the same way he did just then by the time I was done.

As I rounded the corner into the kitchen, Brett stood from pulling two beers out of the fridge. Popping the cap off both, he handed me one before taking a pull from his.

He pointed at my bottle with his own, “Figured you might need that.”

Putting the chilled glass to my lips, I sucked down half of my beer in just a few gulps. “You figured right,” I told him. “Just a heads up, I might need a few more before this conversation’s over.”

A smirk tipped up one corner of his lips, “That’s what tequila’s for, beauty.”

“Ah, yes. Because hugging the toilet and sleeping on the bathroom floor would be the perfect capper for this night.” I tried for light and joking but knew I’d fallen short.

“Why don’t we go outside? It’s a beautiful night.”

I blindly followed after him as he stepped through the back door onto his deck. I pulled my sweater tightly around me as I took a seat on one of the patio chairs, telling myself that the chill running through me was caused by the nip in the night air, not because of my trepidation of telling Brett the truth. But I wasn’t fooling anyone, least of all myself.

Brett sat on the chair next to mine, resting his elbows on his knees as he studied me. “You know, you can tell me as much or as little as you want, Kenzie. I’m not here to push you. I just need to know what I’m up against here.”

My brow furrowed in confusion as I asked, “What do you mean?”

Leaning back with a sigh, he reached around and rubbed at the back of his neck. “I’m gonna be honest here, so just hear me out. I know I said I was fine with just being your friend, but that’s not working for me anymore. I know you’ve felt this insane connection we have. It’s been there since we met, and now I’ve gotten to know you better, know your kids better…well, it’s changed things. You need to know that, from here on out, I’m pulling out all the stops.”

My heart pounded so strongly I was sure he could hear it. His brutal honesty sent my emotions into a spiral that I wasn’t sure how to deal with.

“I want to be with you,” he continued. “And I want to be a part of those kids’ lives. And I’m gonna do everything in my damn power to get what I want. I just need you to know that. Might as well start preparing now, because you aren’t gonna know what hit you.”

I couldn’t understand why he felt so certain, especially without knowing my story. Sucking in a fortifying breath, I prepared to tell him the truth. A truth that would, no doubt, send him running in the other direction.